Posts Tagged ‘Guards Brigade’

Officer's Coatee of Capt Hervey Tower

The Coldstream Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

Although they may have modified or discarded uniform parts later, when the Guards Brigade landed, they wore their full parade dress uniform with epaulettes and bearskin cap.  This photograph shows a fine example of a Coldstream Guards’ officer’s coatee, worn during his Crimean service by Captain Hervey Tower, 1st Battalion, 2nd (Coldstream)Regiment of Foot Guards.

The Star of the Order of the Garter, the badge of the Coldstream Guards, can be seen on each side of the Prussian collar.  It is also identified as Coldstream Guards by the sets of two buttons in double rows down the coatee front, thus the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards.   The 1st (Grenadier) Regiment of Foot Guards buttons are evenly spaced, and the 3rd (Scots Fusilier) Regiment of Foot Guards buttons are in sets of three.  The back of the collar and cuff facings are blue, as were all Guards regiments.  There is a rose and crown in silver on gold on the strap of the epaulettes, designating the rank of Captain.  There was also a difference in the size and shape of the bullion descending from the crescent, depending on the rank.

Close observation shows usage stains on the white lining of the skirts.  In addition, the small slash pockets inside the turn backs can be seen.  These were used to carry such necessary and essential items to a Guards officer as white gloves, or a dance card.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

Epaulettes of Ensign and Lieutenant Fotheringham - Scots Fusilier Guards

The Scots Fusilier Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

Although they may have modified or discarded uniform parts later, when the Guards Brigade landed, the officers wore their full dress parade uniform with epaulettes and bearskin cap.  The photograph is of a fine example of Scots Fusilier Guards officer’s epaulettes, worn by Ensign and Lieutenant Fotheringham.

They are identified as Scots Fusilier epaulettes belonging to a subaltern (Lieutenant) by the thistle standing alone on the strap within the crescent.  A Captain would have had the same thistle with a crown on the epaulette, and a field officer would have had a Saint Andrew’s star, with crown above it.  There was also a difference in the size and shape of the bullion descending from the crescent depending on the rank.

Scots Fusilier Guards records indicate that Fotheringham served honourably in the Crimea.  He left active service as a Lieutenant and Captain in 1859.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the National War Museum, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Uniform of Capt & LtCol Percy, VC, Grenadier Guards

The Grenadier Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea, the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

Henry Percy was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards at age nineteen.  After almost twenty years of service, he embarked for the Crimea at age thirty-seven, as a Captain and Lieutenant Colonel (The dual rank system exclusive to Her Majesty’s Guards regiments).

At Alma he was wounded in the arm, but continued to lead his men in battle.  At Inkerman he led a charge into the Sandbag Battery, then held it against repeated Russian assaults by superior numbers.  Having run out of ammunition, he ordered his men to throw stones at the attacking enemy.  The Russians began doing the same, knocking Percy off the parapet once.  Upon his climbing back up, he was knocked senseless with another even larger stone.  He awoke bleeding badly and half blinded, but was able to join his men in a charge driving the enemy down the hill below the battery.  Out of ammunition and cut off, the wounded Percy led his men through dense brush to safety.  He received the Victoria Cross from Queen Victoria, personally, in Hyde Park on 26 June 1857.

This photograph shows his coatee, sash, and epaulettes under an officer’s greatcoat draped over the coatee in the manner commonly worn by officers in the Crimea.  Note that Percy had cut the standing collar from his coatee, no doubt to make it less restrictive on campaign.  The right sleeve of the coatee (not visible under the greatcoat) shows signs of rough field repair and dried blood.  The epaulettes show the grenade of the Grenadier Guards, and the braiding and crown of a Captain and Lieutenant Colonel.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

Bearskin Cap worn by Sir Charles Russell, VC, Grenadier Guards, in the Crimea

The Grenadier Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

Sir Charles Russell was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest decoration for bravery, for his actions at the Battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854, at age twenty-eight.  The then Brevet Major Russell offered to dislodge a significant group of Russians from the Sandbag Battery, asking if anyone would follow him.  A sergeant and two privates volunteered.  His assault party met much resistance, and seemed on several occasions to be close to annihilation.  Their skill, particularly with the bayonet, prevailed, and the enemy was sent on their way.  Russell fought with great distinction, at one point wrenching the rifle from the hands of a large, powerful Russian.  Sir Charles achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring from the Guards.

The 1846 Uniform Regulations describe the cap in the photograph as a “bear-skin, twelve inches deep, fastened under the chin by a plain gilt taper chain.”  Just prior to embarking for the Crimea, the Guards modified their bearskin caps by cutting them down a few inches.  Perhaps in keeping with this modification, the actual measurement for the cap in this photograph was ten inches deep.  It is also interesting that this bearskin is a soft leather collapsible cap, rather than the stiff Guards caps routinely seen, which have a bamboo-like cage beneath the skin itself.  The white goat’s hair plume on the left side indicates the bearskin is Grenadier Guards, who were on the right flank of the Guards Brigade.  A Coldstream Guards’ scarlet cut-feather plume was on the right side, as they were on the left flank.  The Scots Fusilier Guards had no plume and were in the center of the line.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

Goodlake's Pepperbox Pistol and Bullet Pouch

Lieutenant and Captain (The dual rank system exclusive to Her Majesty’s Guards regiments) Gerald Goodlake, Coldstream Guards, took part in the Battle of Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol. The Coldstream Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

During a Russian probing action up Windmill Ravine on 28 October 1854, a week prior to the Battle of Inkerman, he led approximately 40 Guards sharpshooters against ten times their number in delaying a Russian flanking movement.  This allowed British reinforcements to arrive and drive the enemy back into Sevastopol.  For his gallantry in this action he was presented the Victoria Cross at Hyde Park by Queen Victoria, personally, on 26 June 1857.  He retired in 1881 as a Major General, and was awarded the Honorary Rank of Lieutenant General.

The photograph is of Goodlake’s  six-shot ‘Pepperbox’ revolving pistol and his leather bullet pouch.  He used these items throughout the Crimean War.  This type pistol, sometimes referred to as a “Pepperpot or Pepperbox”, was manufactured in .36 through .40 calibre, beginning in around 1830.  It was primarily for self-defense.  The six barrels were about 3.5 inches long.  The pistol, itself, was about 9 inches long, and weighed about 2 pounds.

The barrels revolved around a spindle, firing in turn as they came under the hammer.  As the trigger was pulled, the hammer cocked, the barrel rotated, and the hammer dropped on a percussion cap (thus igniting the powder and firing the bullet).  The bullets were round lead balls, loaded from the front of each barrel. Fairmans of London manufactured this particular pistol.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

French Zouave Officer's Kepi

A French Army of approximately 22,000 strong landed alongside the British Army (Approximately 18,000) at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854.  The French infantry had three regiments of Zouaves.  Although the Zouaves when originally formed around 1830, and consisted of native Algerian tribesmen with French officers, by the Crimean War their uniform had become so popular that there were numerous Europeans in their ranks.  The uniform followed traditional Algerian tribal dress:  baggy red trousers stuffed in leather jambieres, a short blue jacket trimmed in their regimental colour, and a red fez with turban and tassel.  Their officers and non-commissioned officers dressed somewhat similarly, but wore a red  Chasseur-style kepi, as shown in this photograph.  The two rows of gilt braid designate the rank of lieutenant, and the wear indicates that this remarkable piece of headgear saw campaign use.

In the Crimea, the Zouaves came to the aid of the Guards Brigade during the desperate fighting in and around the Sandbag Battery.  It was said they advanced “like tigers,” and succeeded in driving the Russians out of the battery.

Interestingly, General George B. McClellan, who was an observer for a short time with the French in Sevastopol, fancied this type kepi.  He is said to have brought the design, with its low silhouette and countersunk round top, back from the Crimea to the United States.  Many officers in the American Civil War, especially those on his staff, adopted the style.  It became known as the ‘McClellan Kepi’.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

Captain Neville's Cigar Case

This is a cigar case, containing four cigars, the property of Captain the Honourable H. C. Neville, 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, the Grenadier Guards.

The Grenadier Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal household guard.  In the Crimea, the Guards Brigade consisted of Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

In 1854, cigarette smoking was definitely not in fashion.  Many enlisted soldiers chewed tobacco, but this was not a thing done by the officer class.  Most British officers preferred a pipe or a good cigar.  This cigar case is sufficient to hold six cigars, three on each side behind the canvas.  If you are a cigar smoker today, you can find very similar cases in any tobacconist.

The cigar case in this photograph is typical of those used to protect cigars from being crushed on campaign.  It, and the four cigars within, were carried by Captain Neville, Grenadier Guards, during the Crimean War.  As can be seen, one of the cigars is wrapped in paper.  The paper reveals the sad truth.  It contains the following hand-written note:

Capt. Hon. H. C. Neville

3 Bn  Gr. Guards

Killed at Inkerman  5 Nov 54

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

[This is a fictional tale by Will Hutchison, but based on a very real story.]

The butcher’s nose was broken in two places from the Sergeant Major’s blow.  After weeks in hospital, an indignant butcher appeared before the Scots Fusilier Guards Adjutant, demanding compensation and punishment for his assailants.  The Sergeant Major had already spoken to the Adjutant.  Sticks was already becoming a beloved mascot to the regiment, and indeed the entire Guards Brigade. He had taken to soldiering like it was a family tradition.

“Compensation and punishment yer askin’, is it?” the Adjutant inquired, politely.

The smug butcher nodded, saying, “It’s only right, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is, my man, and so you shall have it.” The butcher smiled, thinking he had won some great prize.

The Adjutant called in his clerk, then said to the butcher.  “Aye, well, sir, here it is.  The compensation will be that I don’t throw you behind bars, and the punishment will be that your contract with this barracks to supply beef has been cancelled.  Yer never ta come back ta this barracks again.  Yer dog’s a wee bit healthier now.  If yer seen here again, I’ll set the dog on ya and let ‘im chew ta his heart’s content.  Och, now, da ya kin that, sir?  Was I clear enough for ya?”

The butcher stood in shocked silence.  The Adjutant ordered, “Take this poor excuse for a man ta the gate, and boot him out.” The clerk dragged the bewildered butcher away.

Over the next months Sticks became stronger and more relaxed in the company of the men of the Scots Fusilier Guards.  He endeared himself to one and all.  He was fed and cared for primarily by Sean Gorman, and occasionally the Sergeant Major, but he visited the other soldiers at their toil each day, making them smile.  Each one felt he owned a small part of the dog named Sticks.  He didn’t belong to one; he belonged to everyone.

Sticks even learned to stand tall at formations, proudly viewing all his friends in their strange high bearskin caps as they prepared for the day’s guard duties.  He was ever punctual and always first on parade.  The rest of his time he spent prancing about Wellington Barracks like he owned it, which in a special way, he did.

[Part V, where Sticks goes to the Crimean War, will be along tomorrow.  Stay tuned.]

[This is a fictional tale, written by Will Hutchison, but based on a very real story.]

The Sergeant Major of the Scots Fusilier Guards became involved in the tale the very next day.  Alerted by the young lieutenant, he told Private Sean Gorman that he must search for the owner of Sticks, as he was now known, and return the dog if he could.  Word of the canine foundling spread like spilled wine across the Guards Brigade, and, unfortunately the tiny dog was recognized.  He belonged to a butcher, whose shop on Petty France Street provided beef to the barracks under contract.

A reluctant Private Gorman appeared at the butcher shop the next day, accompanied by the Scots Fusilier Guards Sergeant Major, who had taken a personal interest in the scruffy little creature.  The butcher, a huge, rotund, surly fellow with a jowly face and long scraggly black hair, was anything but glad to see his charge.

“So there be the little bastard,” he snarled as they entered the shop.  He grabbed the now shivering Sticks from Sean and abruptly threw him in a corner.

Sticks yelped and cowered as he watched both Sean and the Sergeant Major become very agitated.  The butcher said, “Ya shoulda left the pisser freeze out there.  More trouble than he’s worth. Caught ‘im eat’n beef I’d just cut. Kicked ‘im right out the door, I did.”

Sean’s face was turning red. He clenched and reclenched his fists.  The Sergeant Major laid a hand on Sean’s shoulder, stepped in, and said, quietly, “Perhaps he was hungry, da ya think?”

“Hungry, my achin’ arse.  He don’t deserve ta eat.  Plenty of rats around here for ‘im ta catch if he’s a mind.  Earn ‘is keep then, he would … earn ‘is keep.”

“Do I ‘ave this right, then?” the Sergeant Major asked.  “Ya kicked this dog out in the snow, on the worse night I kin recall in London, because he ate a few scraps a beef?”

“He’s my dog, I ‘ave the right, I do.  So bugger off.”  Sean lunged at the wide-eyed butcher, who was three times his size.  The Sergeant Major grabbed him by his collar.  Sean struggled a bit, but calmed down quickly.

The butcher had stepped back, picking up a cleaver, fear showing in his eyes until he saw the boy restrained.  He must have thought the Sergeant Major, a big man himself, was on his side.  “My dog … I’ve the right.  I’ll kill the little bastard if I want.”  He turned toward Sticks and raised the cleaver – a grave mistake.

The Sergeant Major let go of Sean, and grabbed the butcher by his unkempt hair.  In an even quieter voice the Sergeant Major said, “I donna think so, my fat friend.” He didn’t have to pull hard to take the man off balance and down on the floor of the shop.

He butcher wasn’t through yet.  He slowly rose, dazed, but determined, cleaver still in hand.  The Sergeant Major easily swatted the knife aside, and struck the man full in the nose with a blow that jarred the whole room.  The butcher’s eyes glazed over and he went down – for good this time.

The Sergeant Major turned his back to the fallen butcher and walked out of the shop.  As he reached the door, he said, simply,  “Pick up yer new dog, Private Gorman, and see he’s taken good care of.”

[Part IV will be along tomorrow.  Stay tuned.]

A youthful Ian Carlyle in the Crimea

Deciding on a fictional hero for an entire series is a daunting task, not to be pursued lightly. The character will last for years and through many adventures. He will grow older as the series progresses. I had certain aspects of my protagonist in mind from the beginning. For instance, I am a Scot. My father, a character in his own right, was born there. He was raised in the north, and considered himself a highlander, although actually born south of Glasgow in Kilmarnoch. He emigrated to Canada, then to the US. He had a thick brogue. In fact, I had a strange quasi-Scottish accent until I was about ten, when it began to fade away. I wanted my hero to have my roots, and, like my father, be a bit of a rogue and a maverick.

I chose the name Carlyle, because it was a sept of the Clan Bruce of Scottish nobility. The first name, Ian, just seemed to fit. His home was originally Dunmore Hall, until I found through research and friends in Scotland that there was a thriving Dunmore Hall, family, and estate, and they well might take offense to being fictionalized. Thus I made up the name Dunkairn, as Ian’s home. A ‘cairn’ is a mound of stones with crevices. These cairns are all over the highlands. It came to mind from a wonderful cairn terrier I had once owned. Like all such creatures, he was raised to hunt – to drive critters from among these cairns so his master could make the kill. I changed the ‘c’ to a ‘k’ on purely a whim.

I’d had my fill of reading about enlisted men who, against all odds, rose from the ranks in the 19th century British army to become officers of the Queen. The overwhelming majority of the British officer corps did not fit this mold. They came into the army as officers, and, in most cases, had to be able to afford the considerable purchase price and maintenance costs of their commissions. Each promotion was purchased, and the higher, the more expensive.

I made Ian the second son of the Earl of Dunkairn, just to complicate his life even more. As the second son he would not inherit the title, and, in that Victorian period, his options were limited. It would have been appropriate for him to go into the army.

There are many British regiments I am fond of, particularly Scottish regiments. At the top of that list, however, is the Scots Guards, or as they were titled in mid-19th century, the Scots Fusilier Guards. As part of the Guards Brigade, the Household Guard of the Royal family, they were, and remain, the elite of British military. I also wanted him to join a regiment his father, the Earl, might have been in during the Napoleonic Wars, many years before. The Guards are replete with officers who are also titled nobility. One might easily run into a Lieutenant ‘His Lordship’ so and so, or Captain ‘Sir’ so and so. What better regiment for my hero to join than the Scots Fusilier Guards?

To develop Ian’s military background, I spent countless hours at the Scots Guards Archives at Wellington Barracks, London, and, of course, at the Buckingham Arms, across Petty France Street from the rear gate – one of my favorite pubs. With the expert help of Kevin Gorman, Archivist, Scots Guards, who has since become the son I never had, I was able to pin down two of the Scots Fusilier Guards officers who served on George B. McClellan’s staff, Army of the Potomac, in the American Civil War – Captain and Lieutenant Colonel (dual rank system in G uards only)Edward Neville and Captain and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Henry Fletcher. I combined their service records and backgrounds to come up with the fictional Captain Ian Carlyle.

The end result was the character study described in Follow Me to Glory:

“Then, of course, there was Captain Ian David Carlyle, himself. Ian was of medium height, his ramrod posture making him look much taller. He had a delicate face, like his mother’s, with the straight nose, high cheekbones and strong chin of his deep highland roots. Having been brought up largely in London, he had only a trace of Scottish accent, unless he chose to charm or mock someone. At those times his brogue became as thick as he wished, a useful skill that he had learned to impose as one might turn a fine horse, with a flick of the wrist.

Ian had thick sandy-brown hair, which appeared red in bright sunlight, and clear blue eyes that, when focused, could quite literally melt the hardest heart. These same eyes could also turn to iron straight away, and cut through the resolve of most opponents in an instant, another useful skill.

Ian carried himself with the decisive and confident demeanour of a military officer. He wore this bearing like a badge of honour. This, like so many aspects of Ian’s character, was his father’s and Angus’ influence. [Angus is his mentor, a crusty old highlander.]

Ian was, after all, second son of the Earl of Dunkairn. He was here in the Crimea at the end of a long personal struggle, and wanted this war badly, to pursue his own dreams of glory.”

Period Photography by Roger Fenton, and sketches by Peter Culos

Ian Carlyle in American Civil War - 6 years after Crimea

Scots Fusilier Guards officer in Crimea - Used as model for Ian's early sketch

Group of British observers on McClellan's staff in American Civil War

Edward Neville (left), Unidentified officer (middle), Charles Fletcher (right)